Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Before There Were Standards: The Role of Test Animals in the Production of Empirical Generality in Physiology

  • Published:
Journal of the History of Biology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

After 1900, the selective breeding of a fewstandard animals for research in the lifesciences changed the way science was done. Among the pervasive changes was atransformation in scientists' assumptions aboutrelationship between diversity and generality. Examination of the contents of two prominentphysiology journals between 1885 and 1900,reveals that scientists used a diverse array oforganisms in empirical research. Experimentalphysiologists gave many reasons for the choiceof test animals, some practical and otherstruly comparative. But, despite strongphilosophical differences in the approachesthey represented, the view that it was best toincorporate as many species as possible intoresearch on physiological processes waswidespread in both periodicals. Authors aimedfor generality, but they treated it as aconclusion that would or would not follow fromthe examination of many species. After 1900,an increasing emphasis on standardization, thegrowth of the experimental method and thegrowing industrialization of the life sciencesled to a decline in the number of species usedin research. In this context, the selectivebreeding of animals for science facilitated achange in assumptions about the relationshipbetween generality and diversity. As animalswere increasingly viewed as things that wereassumed to be fundamentally similar, scientificgenerality became an a priori assumptionrather than an empirical conclusion.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

Papers consulted in du Bois Archiv

  • Aronson, H. 1885. “Ueber Apnoe bei Kaltblütern und neugeborenen Säugethieren.” du Bois Archiv: 267–274.

  • Beer, Th. 1892. “Ueber den Einfluss der pheripheren Vagusreizung auf die Lunge.” du Bois Archiv (Supplement): 101–216.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bekterev, W. 1899. “Untersuchungsergebnisse betreffend die Erregbarkeit des hinteren Abschnittes des Stirnlappens.” du Bois Archiv: 500–501.

  • Bernheim, J. 1886. “Ueber das Entstehen und Verschwinden der electrotonischen Ströme im Nerven und die damit verbundenen Erregungsschwankungen des Nervenstromes.” du Bois Archiv: 197–250.

  • ―1892. “Die Innervation der Harnblase beim Frosche und Salamander.” du Bois Archiv (Supplement): 11–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellenberger, R. 1899. “Die Eigenschaften der Eselinmilch.” du Bois Archiv: 33–52.

  • Fritsch, G. 1886. “Ergebnisse der Vergleichungen an den elektrischen Organen der Torpedineen.” du Bois Archiv: 360–396.

  • Hall, W. 1896. “Ueber das Verhalten des Eisens im thierischen Organismus.” du Bois Archiv: 49–84.

  • Hällstén, K. 1885. “Zur Erkenntniss der sensiblen Nerven und Reflexapparate des Rückenmarkes.” du Bois Archiv: 167–209.

  • ―1886. “Zur Erkenntniss der sensiblen Nerven und Reflexapparate des Rückenmarkes.” du Bois Archiv: 92–125.

  • ―1887. “Zur Erkenntniss der sensiblen Nerven und Reflexapparate des Rückenmarkes.” du Bois Archiv: 316–376.

  • Hensen. 1889. “Physiologisches Practicum.” du Bois Archiv: 162–165.

  • Jegorow, J. 1892. “Zur Lehre von der Innervation der Blutgefässe.” du Bois Archiv (Supplement): 9–100.

    Google Scholar 

  • Langendorff, O. 1888. “Studien über die Innervation der Athembewegungen. Zehnte bis zwölfte Mittheilung: Ueber die automatische Thätigkeit des Athmungscentrums bei Säugethieren.” du Bois Archiv: 283–310.

  • Langendorf, O. 1891, “Zur Erklärung des Curare-Diabetes.” du Bois Archiv: 476–479.

  • Ploetz, A. J. 1890. “Die Vorgänge in den Froschhoden unter dem Einfluss der Jahreszeit. Vergleich von Rana temporaria und esculenta.” du Bois Archiv: 1–23.

  • Schultz, P. 1895. “Die glatte Musculatur der Wirbelthiere.” du Bois Archiv: 517–550.

  • ―1897. “Die längsgestreifte (glatte) Musculatur der Wirbelthiere.” du Bois Archiv: 1–29.

  • Steinhaus, J. 1888. “Ueber Becherzellen im Dünndarmepithele der Salamandra maculosa.” du Bois Archiv: 310–322.

  • Ziehen, Th. 1899. “Ein Beitrag zur Lehre von den Beziehungen zwischen Lage und Function im Bereich der motorischen Region der Grosshirnrinde mit specieller Rücksicht auf das Rindenfeld des Orbicularis oculi.” du Bois Archiv: 158–173.

Papers consulted in Pflügers Archiv

  • Athanasiu, J. 1898. “Beiträge zur Physiologie der Fettbildung, des Glykogenes und der Phosphorvergiftung.” Pflügers Archiv 71: 318–332.

    Google Scholar 

  • Athanasiu, J. 1899. “Die Erzeugung von Fett im thierische Körper unter dem Einfluss von Phosphor.” Pflügers Archiv 74: 511–560.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bickel, A. 1898. “Zur vergleichenden Physiologie des Grosshirns.” Pflügers Archiv 71: 44–59.

    Google Scholar 

  • Biedermann, W. 1889-1890. “Zur Physiologie der glatten Muskeln.” Pflügers Archiv 46: 398–421.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohnstein, J. and N. Zuntz. 1888. “Weiter Untersuchungen zur Physiologie des Säugethier-Fötus.” Pflügers Archiv 42: 342–392.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Jager, S. 1886. “Die Respirations-schwankungen im Arteriellen Blutdruck beim Kaninchen.” Pflügers Archiv 39: 168–192.

    Google Scholar 

  • De Zaayer, H. G. 1887. “Untersuchungen über Andromedotoxin, den giftigen Bestandtheil der Ericaceae.” Pflügers Archiv 40: 480–500.

    Google Scholar 

  • Einthoven, W. 1892. “Ueber die Wirkung der Bronchialmuskeln, nach einer neuen Methode untersucht, und über Asthma nervosum.” Pflügers Archiv 51: 367–445.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greife, H. 1896. “Ueber den Einfluss der Reizstärke auf die Wärmeentwicklung im Tetanus.” Pflügers Archiv 62: 111–130.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gutnikow, Z. 1891. “Experimentaluntersuchungen über Anämie und Hyperämie des Gehirns in ihrer Beziehung zur Epilepsie.” Pflügers Archiv 49: 563–608.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hering, E. 1897. “Das Hebephänomen beim Frosch und seine Erklärung durch den Ausfall der reflectorischen antagonistischen Muskelspannung.” Pflügers Archiv 68: 1–31.

    Google Scholar 

  • Herman, L. 1890. “Ueber das Verhalten der Vocales am neuen Edison'schen Phonographen.” Pflügers Archiv 47: 42–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Impens, E. 1899. “Ueber die Wirkung des Morphins und einiger seiner Abkömmlinge auf die Athmung.” Pflügers Archiv 78: 527–596.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kunkel, A. 1885, “Ueber eine Grundwirkung von Giften auf die quergestreifte Muskelsubstanz.” Pflügers Archiv 36: 353–372.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lüderitz, C. 1891. “Ueber die Wirkung des constanten Stromes auf die Darmmusculatur.” Pflügers Archiv 48: 1–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schondorff, B. 1896. “Die Harnstoffvertheilung im Blute auf Blutkörperchen und Blutserum.” Pflügers Archiv 63: 192–202.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schultz, N. 1897. “Ueber den Fettgehalt des Blutes beim Hunger.” Pflügers Archiv 65: 299–308.

    Google Scholar 

  • Steinach, E. 1890. “Untersuchungen zur vergleichenden Physiologie der Iris.” Pflügers Archiv 47: 289–340.

    Google Scholar 

  • ―1898. “Ueber die viscero-motorischen Functionen der Hinterwurzeln und über die tonische Hemmungswirkung der Medulla oblongata auf den Darm des Frosches.” Pflügers Archiv 71: 523–554.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sternberg, M. 1898. “Ueber den äusseren Ast des Nervus accessoriusWillisii.” Pflügers Archiv 71: 158–175.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tangle, F. 1895. “Zur Kenntniss der 'Wärmecentren' beim Pferde.” Pflügers Archiv 61: 559–562.

    Google Scholar 

Other references

  • Benson, K. R., J. Maienschein and R. Rainger, eds. 1991. The Expansion of American Biology. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowler, P. J. 1983. The Eclipse of Darwinism: Anti-Darwinian Evolution Theories in the Decades around 1900. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brain, R. M. and M. N. Wise. 1994. “Muscles and Engines: Indicator Diagrams and Helmholtz's Graphic Methods.” In Universalgenie Helmholtz, ed. L. Krüger. Berlin: Akademie Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, E. and L. S. Jacyna. 1987. Nineteenth-Century Origins of Neuroscientific Concepts. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, A. E. 1987. “Research Materials and Reproductive Science in the United States, 1910-1940.” In Physiology in the American Context, 1850-1940, ed. G. L. Geison. Bethesda, MD: American Physiological Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • ―1991. “Embryology and the Development of American Reproductive Science, c. 1900-1940.” In The American Expansion of Biology, eds. K. Benson, R. Rainger and J. Maienschein. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, A. E. and J. H. Fujimura, eds. 1992. The Right Tools for the Job. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clause, B. T. 1993. “The Wistar Rat as a Right Choice: Establishing Mammalian Standards and the Ideal of a Standardized Mammal.” Journal of the History of Biology 26(2): 329–349.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coleman, W. 1985. “The Cognitive Basis of the Discipline. Claude Bernard on Physiology.” Isis 76: 49–70.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daston, L. and P. Galison. 1992. “The Image of Objectivity.” Representations 37: 67–106.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Chadarevian, S. 1993. “Die 'Methode der Kurven' in der Physiologie zwischen 1850-1900.” In Die Experimentalisierung des Lebens, eds. H.-J. Rheinberger and M. Hagner. Berlin: Akademie Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dierig, S. 2000. “Urbanization, Place of Experiment and How the Electric Fish Was Caught by Emil Du bois-Reymond.” Journal of the History of the Neurosciences 9: 5–13.

    Google Scholar 

  • Engels, E-M. 2000. “Charles Darwin in der deutschen Zeitschriftenliteratur des 19. Jahrhunderts-Ein Forschungsbericht.” In Evolutionsbiologie von Darwin bis heute, eds. R. Brömer, U. Hoßfeld and N. A. Rupke. Berlin: Verlag für Wissenschaft und Bildung.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fausto-Sterling, A. 2000. Sexing the Body. Gender Politics and the Construction of Sexuality. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frank, R. 1987. “American Physiologists in German Laboratories, 1865-1914.” In Physiology in the American Context, ed. G. L. Geison, pp. 11–46. Bethesda, MD: American Physiological Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fujimura, J. H. 1996a. “Standardizing Practices: A Socio-History of Experimental Systems in Classical Genetic and Viriological Cancer Research, ca. 1920-1978.” History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 18: 3–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • ―1996b. Crafting Science. A Sociohistory of the Quest for the Genetics of Cancer. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fye, B. 1987. The Development of American Physiology. Scientific Medicine in the NineteenthCentury. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Geison, G. L., ed. 1987a. Physiology in the American Context, 1850-1940. Bethesda, MD: American Physiological Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • ―1987b. “International Relations and Domestic Elites in American Physiology, 1900-1940.” In Physiology in the American Context, 1850-1940, ed. G. L. Geison. Bethesda, MD: American Physiological Society.

  • Gossel, P. P. 1992. “A Need for Standard Methods: The Case of American Bacteriology.” In The Right Tools for the Job, eds. A. E. Clarke and J. H. Fujimura. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gradmann, C. 2001. “Robert Koch and the Pressures of Scientific Research: Tuberculosis and Tuberculin.” Medical History 45: 1–32.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hacking, I. 1992. “The Self-vindication of the Laboratory Sciences.” In Science as Practice and Culture, ed. A. Pickering. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrington, A. 1996. Reenchanted Science: Holism in German Culture from Wilhelm II to Hitler. Princton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harwood, J. 1993. Styles of Scientific Thought: The German Genetics Community, 1900-1933. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holmes, F. L. 1993. “The Old Martyr of Science: The Frog in Experimental Physiology.” Journal of the History of Biology 26(2): 311–328.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, T. 1989. The American Genesis. New York, Penguin Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Junker, T. 1995. “Darwinismus, Materialismus und die Revolution von 1848 in Deutschland. Zur Interaktion von Politik undWissenschaft.” History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences 17: 271–302.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kimmelman, B. A. 1992. “Organisms and Interests in Scientific Research: R. A. Emerson's Claim for the Unique Contribution of Agricultural Genetics.” In The Right Tools for the Job, eds. A. E. Clarke and J. H. Fujimura. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univeristy Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Knorr Cetina, K. 1999. Epistemic Cultures: How the Sciences Make Knowledge. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kohler, R. E. 1982. From Medical Chemistry to Biochemistry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ―1994. Lords of the Fly: Drosophila Genetics and the Experimental Life. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krebs, H. A. 1975. “The August Krogh Principle: 'For Many Problems There is an Animal on which it Can be Most Conveniently Studied'.” Journal of Experimental Zoology 194: 221–226.

    Google Scholar 

  • Krogh, A. 1929. “Progress of Physiology.” American Journal of Physiology 90: 243–251.

    Google Scholar 

  • Latour, B. and S. Woolgar. 1986. Laboratory Life, The Construction of Scientific Facts. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lenoir, Timothy. 1989. The Strategy of Life. Teleology and Mechanics in Nineteenth Century German Biology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Logan, C. A. 1999. “The Comparative Rationale Behind the Choice of a Standard Animal in Psychological Research: Henry H. Donaldson, Adolf Meyer and 'the Albino Rat'.” History of Psychology 2(1): 3–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • ―2001. “'[A]re Norway Rats ⋯ Things?': Diversity versus Generality in the Use of Albino Rats in Experiments on Development and Sexuality.” Journal of the History of Biology 34: 287–314.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lohff, B. 1981. “Emil Du Bois-Reymonds Theorie des Experiments.” In Naturwissenschaft und Erkenntnisim 19. Jahrhundert: Emil Du Bois-Reymond, ed. G. Mann. Hildesheim, Germany: Gerstenberg Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lynch, M. 1988. “Sacrifice and the Transformation of the Animal Body into a Scientific Object: Laboratory Culture and Ritual Practice in the Neurosciences.” Social Studies of Science 18: 265–289.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maienschein, J. 1987. “Physiology, Biology and the Advent of Physical Morphology.” In Physiology in the American Context, 1850-1940, ed. G. L. Geison. Bethesda, MD: American Physiological Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • ―1988. “Whitman at Chicago: Establishing a Chicago Style of Biology?” In The American Development of Biology, eds. R. Rainger, K. Benson and J. Maienschein. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ―1991. Transforming Traditions in American Biology, 1880-1915. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nyhart, L. K. 1995. Biology Takes Form: Animal Morphology and the German Universities, 1800-1900. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Obersteiner, H. 1894. “Ueber vergleichende pathologisch-anatomisch Untersuchungen des Nervensystems.” Arbeiten aus dem Institut für Anatomie and Physiologie des Centralnervensystems an der Wiener Universität 2: 173–179.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oudshoorn, N. 1990. “On the Making of Sex Hormones.” Social Studies of Science 20: 5–33.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pauly, P. J. 1984. “The Appearance of Academic Biology in Late Nineteenth-century America.” Journal of the History Biology 17: 369–397.

    Google Scholar 

  • ―1987a. Controlling Life, Jacques Loeb and the Engineering Ideal in Biology. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • ―1987b. “General Physiology and the Disciplines of Physiology, 1890-1935.” In Physiology in the American Context, 1850-1940, ed. G. L. Geison. Bethesda, MD: American Physiological Society.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pflüger, E. 1877. “Die teleologische Mechanik der lebendigen Natur.” Pflügers Archiv 15: 57–103.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pickering, A., ed. 1992. Science as Practice and Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rader, K. A. 1998. “The 'Mouse People:' Murine Genetics Work at the Bussey Institution, 1909-1936.” Journal of the History of Biology 31: 327–354.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rheinberger, H-J. and M. Hagner, eds. 1993. Die Experimentalisierung des Lebens. Berlin: Akademie Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schlich, T. 1993. “Making Mistakes in Science: Eduard Pflüger, His Scientific and Professional Concept of Physiology, and His Unsuccessful Theory of Diabetes (1903-1910).” Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science 24(3): 411–441.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seitelberger, F. 1963. “Heinrich Obersteiner.” Grosse Nervenärzte, Lebensbilder 3: 21–30.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simmer, H. H. 1977. “Pflüger's Nerve Reflex Theory of Menstruation: The Product of Analogy, Teleology, and Neurophysiology.” Clio Medica 12: 57–90.

    Google Scholar 

  • Todes, D. P. 1997. “Pavlov's Physiology Factory.” Isis 88: 205–246.

    Google Scholar 

  • Verworn, M. 1899. General Physiology, An Outline of the Science of Life. New York: MacMillan and Co.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Departments of Psychology and Biology, University of North Carolina, Greensboro, NC, 27402-6170, USA E-mail

    Cheryl A. Logan

Authors
  1. Cheryl A. Logan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Logan, C.A. Before There Were Standards: The Role of Test Animals in the Production of Empirical Generality in Physiology. Journal of the History of Biology 35, 329–363 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016036223348

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1016036223348

Search

Navigation